Inmates found incapable to proceed occupy most men's beds at western North Carolina's Broughton Hospital
WLOS reported that Broughton Hospital, western North Carolina's only state psychiatric hospital, was increasingly filled with inmates designated incapable to proceed. Laura White, the state's assistant director for state hospitals, said those defendants take priority over other referrals, and that at times 70 of the hospital's 100 male beds were occupied by them, leaving about 30 for civil patients being transferred from across the region.
The story came out of an investigation into emergency room crowding at Mission Hospital in Asheville, where psychiatric patients who need longer-term care can wait days or weeks in the ED. White said the number of incapable-to-proceed inmates kept rising and that there was no immediate solution. State doctors perform forensic evaluations at Broughton, and commitment is typically ordered after a judge hears the results.
The station noted that a new hospital building would add 80 beds when it opened in July but that White expected the bed shortage to worsen, and that it could not find any western county trying to reduce transfers through local programs.
Source: Mental hospital filled with inmates, while other patients wait for help — WLOS (Asheville), by Kimberly King
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